The Budapest Opera House's RingFest festival is holding premieres and lectures in three venues as a closing event of its thematic year on Richard Wagner, featuring the composer's own works and works inspired by him. The Budapest Wagner Days to feature a premiere and various special performances in 2018. Ringfeszt will be held between May 10 and 21 at three venues: Erkel Theatre, Ódry Theatre and the Kiscelli Museum, and will open with a performance of Wagner’s lesser-known songs in Erkel Theatre’s Bernaáh buffet, performed by pianist Bálint Zsoldos and singers Lucia Megyesi Schwartz, Beatrix Fodor, Bori Keszei and Zoltán Bátki Fazekas. Ódry Theatre, the home stage of the Budapest University for Film and Theatre Arts, is hosting a dramatic performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s five cantatas with soloists Marcell Bakonyi, Péter Balczó, Gabriella Busa, Krisztián Cser, Nóra Ducza and Rita Rácz. Ódry is also staging the world premiere of “The Siegfried idyll or the end of a friendship” by Balázs Szálinger, a play on Wagner and Nietzsche’s friendship. Late night performances in the Kiscelli Museum will feature four one-act plays by Paul Hindemith. The festival will close with the concert “The Sacred in Wagner’s work”, featuring his Stabat Mater and excerpts from Tannhäuser and Parsifal. Kiscelli Múzeum1037 Budapest, Kiscelli utca 108. Színház- és Filmművészeti Egyetem (Ódry Színpad)1088 Budapest, VIII. kerület Vas utca 2/c Erkel Színház1087 Budapest, VIII. kerület II. János Pál pápa tér 30. Find tickets here: http://www.opera.hu/festivals?fesztival=ringfeszt Budapest Wagner Days debuted in 2006 with two Parsifal performances, which in many people’s opinion surpassed their Bayreuth counterparts, launching the series and turning the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall which boasts excellent acoustics, as well as unique stage and intellectual dimensions, into an iconic destination for Wagner enthusiasts. The Ring of the Nibelung tetralogy, performed over four successive nights in the spirit of Wagner’s heritage, has become a returning production of the decade-old festival, enjoying the festivalgoers’ unwavering attention. Every year the Ring performances are accompanied by different Wagner pieces that are destined to immortality. In 2006 it was Parsifal that launched the Budapest Wagner Days series that grew into an acclaimed international festival. It was followed by Tristan and Isolde, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, The Mastersingers ofNuremberg, The Flying Dutchman and will feature his early work, Rienzi, scheduled for 2017. Breaking with the tradition, the 2018 Festival will not feature the Ring Tetralogy, but three other large-scale grandiose musical dramas by the composer instead; once again featuring the world’s best Wagner singers, outstanding productions as well as brand new performance to entertain the Hungarian and international audience. The story of the tragic love affair between Tristan and Isolde, is adapted to stage by Cesare Lievi, the leading light of Italian theatre, and will feature Anja Kampe, one of the very best Wagner signers today, having already amazed Hungarian audiences as Isolde on numerous occasions. Conducted by the Festival’s founder and artistic director Ádám Fischer, the aforementioned, brand new performance will be making its debut at the "Wagner in Budapest" Opera Festival. Mr. Fischer will also conduct Tannhäuser (huge success in past editions of the Festival), as directed by Matthias Oldag, which in 2018 will be performed on 14 and 17 June, with the outstanding American tenor Stephen Gould in the title role. The earliest opera of the Bayreuth canon (“the Bayreuth Ten”), The Flying Dutchman will also be making a return in 2018 with three showings, under the direction of Balázs Kovalik, which already proved a roaring success in 2015. Not all Wagner performances change people and they do not all leave a lasting impression on people’s soul, but this celebration of Wagner as conducted by Ádám Fischer certainly does”, said the the press of last year’s "Wagner in Budapest" Opera Festival, which in 2018 will be held over the course of ten days, from 7 to 17 June. MüPa 1095 Budapest IX., Komor Marcell u. 1. Tickets for the 2018 "Wagner in Budapest" Opera Festival are already on sale: https://www.mupa.hu/en/events/budapest-wagner-days/budapest-wagner-days-2018 Text: MTI, MüPa, Photo: Budapest Wagner Days